The Children as Strikers
Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with many children posed on sidewalk.
Like their parents, children were affected by the difficult living and working conditions, low pay, and long hours working in the Lawrence mills. When it came time to strike, the children marched alongside their parents and made the country take notice.
The following poem by Jane Roulston appeared in the New York Call on February 15, 1912, titled “The Coming of the Children.”
Was it an army’s martial tread
That beat through the traffic’s sullen roar?
And was it the shouting of warriors’ dread
That the icy blasts of North wind bore?
Nay, ‘twas but the patter of little feet
And children’s voices clear and sweet
Loud rang their call o’er the city’s din
“We are the strikers, and we shall win!”
